Wireless internet is definitely a positive change about the new ruleset, though crashing guns and cyber is a little weird.

Does your statement mean that mean you'll handwave to enable a chance for Noruas to do some decking or you'll handwave the communication issues with the bracelet?

And if you can handwave the difficulty acquiring a rating 7+ wireless tap soon, that'd be good too.  If we had one of those, we could have found a connection anywhere within a few km and Noruas could have been decking from the van - and we definitely would have done.  If you want to retcon upgrading Copperhead's existing rating 6 one and us installing it, that's an option too...

I will not be handwaving forcing Noruas to sit in the drek with the rest of you.

Yes, handwaving the roll. In this case, Noruas is able to use his decking and telecom software to hit the tower and prioritize your call.

Ok.  Is there anything you need from him/us?

I'll go ahead and roll and post, probably on Monday. I'm actually traveling this weekend. Needless to say, I've been keeping busy!!

Ok, I presume that's a decking roll from Noruas?

Yes. I just climbed out of a most-day training session, but if my head clears this afternoon I'll do it myself (otherwise I aim to make a post tomorrow).

So, what's everyone's last move before the action start, going to be?

I think the plan had been to wait for DocWagon to get noticed, then have the scorpion attack the leader and blow the grenades as the needle goes in.  However, I'm not totally clear on the timing - at what point in the "laying of the grenades" process did Noruas manage to clear a channel to allow the call to go through?  Has enough time gone by that he's able to notice anything inbound and guess their ETA (or alternatively, notice no response, in which case we say frag it and just blow the grenades)?

My reading of Papa's post is that it looks like the meeting is about to break up, so we need to pull the trigger regardless of what DocWagon is up to - and thus it doesn't really matter where they're at.  Is that accurate Papa?

In terms of final actions, Apparently I'm already in position under the chair - though I hadn't planned to be.  I'll take it though :)  Good thing I'll have his leg as cover when the concussion grenade goes off.  At that range, it's gonna hurt like a son-bitch...

My final action is going to be getting the arial drone on its attack vector so all Noruas has to do is shoot.  Noruas I presume is already jacked into the van and the grenade vectors are locked in.  He just needs to be watching the scorpion so he can blow the grenades as the needle goes in.  Then he gets to launch grenades and sow some general chaos by shooting through the roof at the guards.  As for Caduceus and White Duck, they can prepare grenades or a flashback or weapons - whatever they want to have in-hand when shit hits the fan.  Not sure if Caduceus has any last-minute spells he wants to cast.

As best I can tell from the dice rolls, Khan has some sort of advanced neurotoxin filter installed as cyber.  He cut the strength of the drug in half and rolled 20 dice to resist it- so he took no damage from a drug that would have dropped even an above-average normal person.  It also means he probably won't take much or any damage from the gas.  So we're probably going to have to drop him some other way - and instead of being close to us, he's now getting the gangers between us and him.

The odds on this aren't looking nearly as good as they once were.  The guards should be less effective, but we're still looking at around 16 to 3 - and that's before reinforcements pour in, which they're bound to do in a few rounds - magical support possibly sooner.

So far, the opponents don't know where we are.  (The dart gun is air-powered, so it's unlikely anyone noticed the briefcase).  It may be better to keep it that way until we know how effective the gas grenades have been.  On the other hand, moving quickly might not be a bad idea either.  An illusion at the far end that gets the leader running *towards* us might be a really good idea.  (Fingers crossed he doesn't have an unbelievable willpower in addition to a massive charisma and body.)

Be careful about reading dice rolls. My first 20-dice roll is for initiative. I have a big chart of 'guard1, guard2, guard3', so rather than rolling for each character individually, I roll a giant one and match them up.

(But you're right, he does have toxin filters :P Looks like someone from 1992 anticipated your dirty drone tricks!)

Noruas - um, please change the post about setting off the HE grenade.  It's sitting in a pile of warheads in the warehouse.  When you set it off, the whole warehouse comes down (and perhaps a few surrounding buildings too).  White Duck and Caduceus would be vaporized and Copperhead would loose some expensive equipment and get a nasty headache...

Plan is to set off the HE grenade once our team is back down the sewer and sufficiently far away they don't have to worry about things caving in on top of them.

But is there any honor in that?

Oh, ok.  Will do.

I keep going back and forth on whether it would be a bad idea for Caduceus to lob a few of his personal concussion grenades out of the hole before climbing up.  On the one hand, it would weaken their enemies further.  On the other hand, it might tip them off about their location an make them easy targets.  Any advice?  Is there something better Caduceus could do?  I don't think I want him to climb out quite yet, since most people are still capable of shooting.

Could you magic-hand the grenade such that you could throw it from somewhere you aren't?  Anything you can do that gets the leader headed back our direction would be helpful - the smaller the number of goons and amount of gas the two of you need to wade through, the better.

Unfortunately trid phantasm doesn't produce sound.  Perhaps an illusion of a grenade flying into the equipment store?  Or a bomb with a timer in the same stash?  The fact you can't produce sound limits you somewhat.

If you can cast influence on one of the guards providing cover to Khan (hopefully someone with poor willpower) and have him try to convince Khan to go out the exit that's nearer to us, that might be useful.  Something like "There's a raid coming up the front stairs.  We need to get out the back to a more defensible position".  At minimum, the argument might keep them in the area of effect for the gas for longer and if they move towards us, even better.  Challenge is you'd need line of sight.  Dunno if you can get that easily without being spotted.  (And it's an exclusive spell, so you can't mix it with clairvoyance).

Another possibility is to levitate a crate or the table or something to block their way or at least create more confusion.  You ought to be able to do that without attracting much attention.  And the sight of that happening might be enough to distract while Caduceus lobs another grenade or two.

Question: If the gas + injection do manage to drop him (questionable if he's got drug filters), can you magic-fingers the chip out if you're just looking at him astrally?  It'd be nice to avoid you having to go into the smoke.

Duck's a throwing expert. He can lob it.

If you can move to a covered position where return fire isn't likely to be directed at Caduceus, that'd be good.  A couple of additional grenades in their midst should keep them pretty occupied.

Papa: I presume the gas doesn't hit those in it every round.  On the other hand, I presume sitting in the gas for 5+ minutes isn't terribly good for your health.  What are the rules for extended exposure?  (Not that we're planning to be here terribly long...)

Something else we can do if need-be is have Noruas and I swap places.  With Caduceus watching on the astral to provide targeting advice, I can probably walk some pretty heavy fire into anyone who's presenting a threat - or at least keep them from thinking about anything other than getting their hoop to cover.  Noruas could then hit anyone who comes out of the smoke on the side of the grate.  Or drive the van around lobbing more grenades and helping to keep those outside distracted.  (We'll need to make that switch after a couple of rounds regardless because Noruas will be out of range and they'll likely have their heavier weapons out and it'll be time to start dancing.)

Cool.  I'll make a post where he offers some grenades to you when I get home in the morning.

If Caduceus goes astral, he will only be able to use his spells on other astral characters or astrally perceiving characters.  I have actually sort of been avoiding looking out the hole with astral perception just in case there is a Mage ready to cast a spell on me or something.  I don't think that first spirit I sent looking for them ever came back...

Wow, lots of rules questions now.

Magic fingers--IF Caduceus has line of sight and physical he can attempt magic fingers, but there is a Quickness test for delicate work like that, and there will be penalties for smoke, noise, and so on. Definitely won't be easy.

The way I've always ruled gas is you have to roll for it every turn you're in the gas itself. You can't just pass your test once then camp out as long as you like. If I'm doing the rule wrong, you are welcome to hit M&M to double check me though :P

Another thing to consider is that snake shamans get -1 die to all spells cast during combat, and Caduceus currently has light stun as well.  Probably best not to rely too heavily on his magic in this situation if possible.

How much of the warehouse is now filled with smoke/gas?  Is it possible to get around the outside of it.  Is there anyone who looks like they're not in an area that's covered by the smoke?  How many entrances are there

@Caduceus - fully understand the limitations of your magic right now.  You'd asked for ideas and I was just trying to throw some out :)

@Papa - looks like it only lasts for two combat turns (SR3E p283), so impacting every CT is reasonable I guess.  Two hits of 6S wouldn't kill anyone unless there were special circumstances that staged up the damage.  However, it should drop most people without protection or really high body after 6 seconds.  Given that it's both contact and inhalation, I doubt anyone's got adequate protection or can get to that in the timeframe between when they start to recognize the effects and before they've been exposed for 2 turns in a row.


So, as long as the Caduceus & White Duck stay outside the smoke (and gas) for two rounds, we should only have to worry about those who either weren't in the gas or who managed to stumble out of it after only one CT of exposure.  Focusing on taking those folks down - at least if they happen to be in the way - should be the priority.  Everyone who was in contact with the cloud will need 6's minimum to dodge - even if they resisted all the stun from the gas and grenades.  (They'll also need 6s or more to hit anything and most will need 9s as between the stun grenade(s) and the gas, there won't be many folks standing who haven't taken at least Serious damage.  That should make them less likely to hit and easier to dodge whatever they're firing.

The biggest threats will be those who somehow were outside the range of effect of everything - which I think will only be those who were outside at the time - or magical threats.


EDIT: Stripped stuff off the end that was from an unedited version of the post
This message was last edited by the player at 17:24, Tue 01 Aug 2017.

(I had some incoherent stuff on the end of my previous post that I've stripped.)

Is it safe to emerge at this point?

I would keep to cover until the gas has had a chance to take effect for at least one round.  Tossing another grenade or two wouldn't be a bad idea.  Right now, everyone's just at a -1 or -2 from the stun grenade.  Smoke hasn't really started to obscure vision.  If you can toss grenades without attracting attention to the sewer entrance, so much the better.

After one more CT, the gas should be inert, so you can go where you like.  Most people will be +5 before vision modifiers (if they're still conscious at all) and you'll have full smoke cover.  So that's the point to make the run for the chip.

It would be good to keep eyes on Khan/Cooperman so that if he drops from the impact of the gas/injection, you know where the body is and can navigate to it quickly through the smoke while getting around any stationary obstacles.

With your stealth + concealment + smoke plus the modifiers most will have on their perception, it should be possible for you to move without most people noticing you unless you bump right into them.

Papa, just to confirm, will the gas take effect at the end of this round (same as the injection) or will that be offset by another round?  I.e. Do we have to wait 3 rounds until the gas is inert or just two?  (Copperhead should be familiar with its behavior.)